Madam CJ Walker was originally born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Louisiana plantation. Walker had a rough childhood, she and her older sister Louvenia were orphaned. They survived by working in the cotton fields of a nearby town close to Mississippi. At the age of 14, Walker married Moses Mcwilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell. On june 6, 1885 Madam CJ Walker had a daughter named Lelia.
Walker later moved to St.Louis with husband to join her four brothers. Working for as little as $1.50 a day she managed to save up enough money for her daughter Lelia. During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose most of her hair. She experienced with many products to discover a cure for her terrible condition. In 1905, Walker moved to Denver to become a sales agent for Annie Malone.
Sarah then married her third husband Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. After changing her name to Madam CJ Walker, she founded her on business and began selling Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula. To promote her products, Walker traveled for a year and a half throughout the deep black south and the Southeast to sell her produucts door to door. She demonstrated scalp treatments, devising sales, and marketing strategies.
Around 1908 Walker temporarily moved her base to Pittsburgh where she opened Lelia College to train Walker "hair culturists". By early 1910, she had settled in Indianapolis, where she built a factory, hair salon and another training school. Less than a year after her arrival, Walker grabbed national headlines in the black press contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the "colored" YMCA in Indianapolis. In 1913, Sarah traveled to Central America to expand her business while her daughter A'Lelia moved into a new Harlem townhouse.
Moving herself to New York in 1916 Walker left a day to day operation of the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis to Ransom and Alice Kelly, her factory forelady and a former school teacher. She continued to oversee her business and at the same time run the New York office. Walker was so interested in Harlem's social and political life she contributed $5,000 to the NAACP's anti-lynching movement.
Madam CJ Walker died at the age of 51 on May 25, 1919 from complications of hypertenison. She was considered to be the wealthiest African-American woman in America and known to be the first African-American millionare. Some cite her as the first self-made woman millionare. He daughter Lelia suceeded as the president of the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company.
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations....I have built my own factory on my own ground."
Madam CJ Walker was originally born Sarah Breedlove on December 23, 1867 on a Louisiana plantation. Walker had a rough childhood, she and her older sister Louvenia were orphaned. They survived by working in the cotton fields of a nearby town close to Mississippi. At the age of 14, Walker married Moses Mcwilliams to escape abuse from her cruel brother-in-law, Jesse Powell. On june 6, 1885 Madam CJ Walker had a daughter named Lelia.
Walker later moved to St.Louis with husband to join her four brothers. Working for as little as $1.50 a day she managed to save up enough money for her daughter Lelia. During the 1890s, Sarah began to suffer from a scalp ailment that caused her to lose most of her hair. She experienced with many products to discover a cure for her terrible condition. In 1905, Walker moved to Denver to become a sales agent for Annie Malone.
Sarah then married her third husband Charles Joseph Walker, a St. Louis newspaperman. After changing her name to Madam CJ Walker, she founded her on business and began selling Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower, a scalp conditioning and healing formula. To promote her products, Walker traveled for a year and a half throughout the deep black south and the Southeast to sell her produucts door to door. She demonstrated scalp treatments, devising sales, and marketing strategies.
Around 1908 Walker temporarily moved her base to Pittsburgh where she opened Lelia College to train Walker "hair culturists". By early 1910, she had settled in Indianapolis, where she built a factory, hair salon and another training school. Less than a year after her arrival, Walker grabbed national headlines in the black press contributed $1,000 to the building fund of the "colored" YMCA in Indianapolis. In 1913, Sarah traveled to Central America to expand her business while her daughter A'Lelia moved into a new Harlem townhouse.
Moving herself to New York in 1916 Walker left a day to day operation of the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis to Ransom and Alice Kelly, her factory forelady and a former school teacher. She continued to oversee her business and at the same time run the New York office. Walker was so interested in Harlem's social and political life she contributed $5,000 to the NAACP's anti-lynching movement.
Madam CJ Walker died at the age of 51 on May 25, 1919 from complications of hypertenison. She was considered to be the wealthiest African-American woman in America and known to be the first African-American millionare. Some cite her as the first self-made woman millionare. He daughter Lelia suceeded as the president of the Madam CJ Walker Manufacturing Company.
"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations....I have built my own factory on my own ground."
-- Madam CJ Walker